Big prizes on offer as Peterborough Lottery is given the go ahead

Plans for a new lottery for Peterborough have been given the go-ahead by councillors.

The scheme was given the green light at a meeting of Peterborough City Council’s cabinet this morning (Monday), at the Town Hall.

The lottery will now be launched in the autumn and tickets would be sold online for £1. The draw would be weekly with a jackpot of £25,000 and a range of smaller prizes on offer too.

Sixty per cent of the proceeds raised will go to good causes, with the aim of raising around £5,500 in the first year and £67,500 by year three.

The scheme was given universal backing at the meeting - although cllr Diane Lamb, the cabinet member for public health raised concerns about gambling addiction and said: “Could it lead to gambling issues in the city?”

John Harrison, Corporate Director: Resources at the council said: “If you look at what is available already in the city, with the National Lottery, Health Lottery, Postcode Lottery, there are already a number of things available. Our lottery will be different, in that you can’t go out and buy a scratch card off the street, for example.”

Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Integrated Adult Social Care and Health, sought assurances that money raised for good causes would only be spent in Peterborough.

Mr Harrison confirmed the money raised would be available for community groups in Peterborough and for national charities - but only if the money was spend in the city area.

Speaking before the meeting. Councillor John Holdich, leader of the council, said: “A number of other local authorities have launched lotteries and they have proved a success, helping those councils to further support local voluntary and community groups. In its first year, the Aylesbury Vale District Council lottery generated over £70,000 for local good causes, exceeding all original targets when launched. Over 150 good causes are already signed up and benefitting from the lottery in that part of the country.

“Although we currently give money to a number of good causes, with council funding reducing all the time we are limited to the amount we can offer and the number of groups we can support. We know there are many other groups and organisations in the community that would benefit from funding if we could offer it and a lottery could allow us to do so.

“If just 0.5 per cent of our population who will be eligible to play did so, it would generate a benefit to the community of £22,000. That’s a fantastic amount which could have huge benefits to our residents.

“We will not take a penny of the profits made, but it will allow us to spend less of our ever dwindling budget on community grants. That way we have more money to spend on the services that we have a duty to provide for our residents, in particular protecting and caring for the elderly, young and vulnerable.”

Participants will be able to choose from two types of ticket, either a local lottery ticket or a specific Peterborough good causes ticket.

A local lottery ticket will operate city-wide and see profits go into a general Good Cause Central Fund (60 per cent) to be administered and distributed by the council. This will help support voluntary and community organisations which may struggle to raise funds as easily as others, perhaps due to their size or the issues that they are addressing.

The specific good causes lottery would involve groups signing up to take part in a specific ‘sub lottery’ for their individual good cause.

This would provide them with their own lottery web page, helping the good cause to engage with their players and raise income. They would operate under the council’s license and have no need for their own lottery system. This ticket type ensures that the majority of the proceeds go to that specific good cause (50 per cent) and the general Good Cause Fund (10 per cent).

People aged 16 and over living anywhere in the country will be able to enter the lottery.